#thegraces

Fairytale this ain’t: A Review

Everyone said the Graces were witches. They moved through the corridors like sleek fish, ripples in their wake. Stares followed their backs and their hair. They had friends, but they were just distractions. They were waiting for someone different. All I had to do was show them that person was me.

Like everyone else in her town, River is obsessed with the Graces, attracted by their glamour and apparent ability to weave magic. But are they really what they seem? And are they more dangerous than they let on?

CRYPTIC SPOILERS AHEAD AGAIN...

I actually read this book in Nov 2016, but there was no way I could put into words how I was feeling about the book right after finishing it. There was some emotions I wasn’t sure of, some I’m still not sure I understand - but at least I felt something.Strange as it was (strange feels this book is not lacking!) I hate books that I am meh about.

One thing I liked about this story was the atmosphere; the place its set is quaint, I had a picture of the seaside town in my head, and I can imagine buying 99 flakes and walking along the shore. But Eve didn’t leave it that way. With the Graces comes this edge, this sense of magic and marvellous things, and that was an interesting contrast - to see a low key town brim with life because of one family.

It’s hard not to want to be a Grace with the way they are described in this book; money, beauty, power, but as with all of those things, they are more curse than gift. They were a vehicle to also show other people’s shortcomings in being so obsessed with them.

What I liked is that Eve captured the basic instinct of all humans, and especially teenagers, to be accepted. I’m definitely past my teenage years, but some of the social scenes and rejections had me remembering what it was like being at school and wanting people to like me and invite me to things. I laughed, I cringed, and I wanted people to be punished / succeed, so well done Eve :)

At the moment I’m big into character development; there’s nothing that makes me salivate more than when an author really turns the magnifying glass on their characters and makes their book an inquisition, and, an arena of learning, all whilst the stakes are mounting. That’s where the fun and the feels and even the hatred come from when we get into a story. Don’t get me wrong, through River’s eyes we see the cracks in the Grace’s perfectly constructed personas. They are NOT who they seem to be at the beginning. But with River I didn’t get any sense of who she is. Just “something” about her at the end, but even then, I was like ERM, WHAT? I think if Eve had shown River’s character a bit more I’d have understood what she was better and the two would have felt more natural. Plus, she had all this great stuff about her dad, and her relationship with her mum that could have been used to give the reader more to analyse. 

Also, I really liked the opening chapter where it suggested River was going to ensnare the Graces, and that first interaction with Fenrin had me rooting for her, and intrigued. But after that, River didn’t really live up to her promise. She simply followed Summer around, and didn’t insert her way into their lives at all. I like it when the MC drives the story, and honestly, she wasn’t driving the plot forward for me at all. She merely served as a television screen on which I watched 3 perfect people’s lives unravel.

I am NOT going to give away the ending, but it was pretty edge of your seat, intense, and kind of uncomfortable. No, scrap that, it was DAMN uncomfortable. And totally gripping as a result. However, it did take TIME to get there. Lots of needless TIME and pinning from River and ‘transformations’ that I didn’t get, since she hadn’t changed AT ALL in the book. 

All in all, I think the plot chugged along because the author knew she had a huge reveal coming, which did make me want to get my hands on the 2nd book, but didn’t quite justify why I read the rest of the book.

Having said that, it’s one of those books that I actually really, really enjoyed despite there being not much plot. (Doesn’t make sense, I know!)

Read this if you like:

Playing a guessing game about where the plot is going to go, if magic does exist, and who your MC is going to be

Watching ‘perfect’ crumble

Climaxes that hit you like a tidal wave

Rating: 1/5 stars

Possible spoilers: For a very vague review. I really tried to like this book but couldn't bring myself to like it.

Summary: Our main character, River is obsessed with the Grace family that has a complicated history. She is in love with Fenrin Grace who's supposed to be the most attractive guy at school. He also has two sisters, Summer & Thalia Grace. Summer is goth meanwhile Thalia is both beautiful and untouchable. River wants to be a part of their group but knows that they tend to switch friends rather quickly.

My problems with these books are:

1) This book is the Walmart version of Twilight. Twilight was more enjoyable because I could actually find enjoyable moments within all that mess.

2) We have an all-white cast with one token, possibly a South Asian character. I wasn't really sure what her ethnicity was. All the characters are either problematic or show no growth throughout the book. Thalia has no other interesting character traits other than how she dresses. Summer is transparent. She doesn't hide anything and just tells River everything. Fenrin is only shown as unattainable and hot. It is stated that he is possibly bisexual, but this is used to show how the other characters are biphobic/queerphobic. Trigger Warning: From River to Fenrin's own mother, they both use the word "disgusting" to describe Fenrin. River because of Fenrin kissing another boy. His mother likely called him that for the same reasons. This was a breaking point and they almost immediately dropped it. 

3) River is practically obsessed with the Graces. This is shown through their thoughts and is a recurring problem as they can be creepy and borderline stalker-like. We learn that River isn't her real name. She does everything she can in order to become a different person. She does so in order to please others. Specifically, people she doesn't even know well. She is constantly putting other girls down. From judging their mannerisms to how much lip gloss they have on. Again, I know sometimes you can read a book and not like the main character, but she has no redeeming qualities, and this affects all the other characters, who barely have a personality.

4) SO MANY TROPES THAT I DESPISE. I can usually excuse tropes I dislike. I'm not like other girls' tropes, using diverse characters to give other characters "development", "mean girl" status, etc. All these tropes combined can only make a mess of a book. Perhaps they would work with a better set of characters, but the current set is not worth reading. In addition, the writing isn't that good either. It's a rather slow story and there are parts where you feel as if the problem was just added to create drama or some form of plot which there was none of.

5) I skimmed the book all the way to the end. Without any spoilers, given the ending was a set up for you to go read the other book. It leaves you with a cliffhanger.